File Disappeared - HELP!

[wrswaim]

OK, we have used Audacity for years at our church to record sermons, talks, etc. without a hitch ever. Every week we do the same process and do it almost blindfolded. We pull up the file, erase any dead spots (if there are any), save file, export to mp3, etc. It plays back, great, all's good. Goes like clockwork - until today.

The file was saved and exported to mp3, took the usual minute and a half as usual. This time when I went back to get it encoded for wma the name was there but it was unusually quick - like 2 seconds and it was done. So I go back to the mp3 file and see it is unusually low KB. I click to play it and it is a nano second long. Then I think - well no big deal, go back to the original au file, etc. and redo. The date is there and the folder but NO DATA!!! I NEVER erased or deleted anything. Just the same process as usual - and now I can;t find it in any searches, or anywhere through any means!! HELP!!!!

We covered a highly sensitive and important subject yesterday in church and people are lined up already asking me for the recording. I need this fast!!!

HELP!
Wrswaim

[steve]

Regarding recovery, there's not much you can do unless you can find the .au files (that should be in the _data folder).
Recording is normally written to a temp file on the C drive - check in the Audacity Preferences for the exact location.
When you Save the project, the data should then be automatically copied from the Temp folder to the project _data folder.

As to why it happened - are you running short of disk space?

[wrswaim]

Nope - plenty of disc space. Strangest thing I have ever seen - exact same steps each time. We export to mp3, then windows encoder and then up to website. It gave all indications of normal time and export process and then when i went to listen to it in mp3 as a test it had one second of silence - 40 minutes are gone forever. I rerecorded in-studio (even though it is not as good as when we did it live) and went through same exact process and it worked fine just as before. I'll try your methods and let ya know. Thx, Walt

[wrswaim]

Ok, checked it all out as you indicated. What is weird is the folder is there but is completely empty of any files (I did not deletions). The TEMP directory was found and empty (I haven;t changed anything since using it). The mystery grows.

[steve]

It sounds like Audacity crashed at just the wrong time. Unfortunately Audacity 1.2.6 does not recover very well from crashing.
The good news is that Audacity 1.3.12 (usually) crashes less often, and if it does crash it is much better at automatically recovering the audio.
I would highly recommend Audacity 1.3.12, but as you are using Audacity for critical non-repeatable recordings, give it a thorough test before you rely on it for a never-to-be-repeated live recording.

You can have Audacity 1.2.6 and 1.3.12 installed at the same time. The limitation is that you can't run them simultaneously and Audacity 1.2.6 cannot open projects that have been saved by 1.3.12